NEW YORK (AP) – A man accused of sexually assaulting a woman while posing as a city firefighter was formally charged with kidnapping, sexual abuse and other charges, authorities said Sunday.

Peter Braunstein, 42, is also charged with burglary and robbery in the Halloween sex attack, said Barbara Thompson, spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

Braunstein, a former fashion writer on the run since early November, was arrested on the University of Memphis campus after a campus police officer confronted him Friday afternoon. He stabbed himself several times in the neck, spending two days in a Memphis hospital before being released late Saturday.

“As far as I know, he’s now in jail,” said Jackie Smart, nursing supervisor at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis. Memphis police and prosecutors didn’t immediately return telephone calls Sunday.

Braunstein will be arraigned on Monday in Memphis and will then face extradition to New York to face the charges in the Halloween attack, Thompson said.

New York police say as the city celebrated Halloween, a man posing as a firefighter responding to a blaze barged into the woman’s apartment, knocked her out with a chemical-soaked rag and molested her over many hours.

A woman who recognized Braunstein from television reports called police on Friday, leading to his capture on a street on the Memphis campus, authorities said.


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